A fixed broadband wireless data access service providing shared wide-band packet-switched data transport for high speed data access in areas where conventional ADSL service and fiber optic service are unavailable. The wireless data access service is a point-to-multipoint cellular-type network that connects customers to data service providers through the ATM backbone of an existing network. Customers connect to the ATM backbone and data service provider through a cellular grid in which a wireless base station in each cell communicates with the individual customer wireless equipment within its cell site coverage area. The base stations are connected to an ATM backbone switch through wireless and wireline backhaul links. The upstream and downstream bandwidths of the wireless broadband network are engineered in various symmetric and asymmetric configurations to provide a shared packet-switched connection that emulates an uninterrupted, direct wireline ADSL connection. The wireless broadband network employs a data protocol of shared access bandwidth and adaptive asymmetric data rates to support multiuser service sessions by wireless transmission. The wireless broadband network is not network protocol specific and can be applied to wireless asymmetric digital subscriber line service, wireless integrated service digital network over digital subscriber line service, wireless very high bit rate digital subscriber line service, or wireless symmetric or single-line digital subscriber line service.

Claim:

What is claimed:

1. A method comprising: receiving packet-switched data at a first cellular base station over a backhaul communication link between the first cellular base station and a switchthat controls access to a broadband network; and transmitting the received packet-switched data to a plurality of customer computers located at a customer premises, wherein the transmitting includes dividing a bandwidth of the first cellular basestation between the plurality of customer computers, and adjusting data rates between the first cellular base station and the respective customer computers to accommodate a varying amount of the packet-switched data on demand, wherein the transmittingincludes transmitting the received packet-switched data to at least one of the plurality of customer computers through a second cellular base station that is coupled to the first cellular base station, and wherein the transmitting includes transmittingthe received packet-switched data to the plurality of customer computers located at the customer premises that includes a wireless transceiver, which is coupled to the at least one of the plurality of customer computers via a customer network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer network comprises a local area network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving the packet-switched data at the first cellular base station over a wireless backhaul communication link.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving the packet-switched data at the first cellular base station via an asynchronous transfer mode protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving includes receiving the packet-switched data at the first cellular base station over the backhaul communication link between the first cellular base station and an asynchronous transfer modeswitch.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising monitoring and controlling a data communication between the broadband network and the customer premises.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, authenticating the at least one of the plurality of customer computers to confirm that the at least one of the plurality of customer computers is associated with an approved subscriber.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting includes transmitting the received packet-switched data between the first cellular base station and the customer premises via an asynchronous transfer mode protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting includes transmitting the received packet-switched data between the wireless transceiver and the at least one of the plurality of customer computers via an internet protocol.

10. A system, comprising: a cell hub equipment, of a first cellular base station, configured to receive packet-switched data over a backhaul communication link between the first cellular base station and a switch that controls access to abroadband network; and an antenna, of the first cellular base station, configured to transmit the received packet-switched data to a plurality of customer terminals located within a customer premises, wherein the cell hub equipment is further configuredto control bandwidth-sharing of the first cellular base station between the plurality of customer terminals, and configured to dynamically adjust a data rate between the first cellular base station and at least one of the plurality of customer terminals,as a function of a change in packet-switched data traffic, wherein the at least one of the plurality of customer terminals is coupled to the first cellular base station through a second cellular base station, and wherein the customer premises includes awireless transceiver, which is coupled to the at least one of the plurality of customer terminals via a customer network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the customer network includes a local area network.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the backhaul communication link includes a wireless link.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the switch includes an asynchronous transfer mode switch.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the data rate between the first cellular base station and at least one of the plurality of customer terminals is asymmetric.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein cell hub equipment is further configured to dynamically adjust a ratio of an upstream data rate and a downstream data rate, wherein the upstream data rate is related to a first communication from the at leastone of the plurality of customer terminals to the first cellular base station, and the downstream data rate is related to a second communication from the first cellular base station to the at least one of the plurality of customer terminals.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein cell hub equipment is further configured to select the data rate based in part on a capacity of the cell hub equipment.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein cell hub equipment is further configured to receive the packet-switched data via an asynchronous transfer mode protocol.

18. The system of claim 10, further comprising, a connection management equipment configured to authenticate the at least one of the plurality of customer terminals.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system to perform operations, comprising: obtaining packet-switched data at a first cellular base stationvia a backhaul communication network that couples the first cellular base station with a switch that controls access to a broadband network; transmitting the packet-switched data directed to a plurality of customer devices located within a customerpremises, through a second cellular base station that is coupled to the first cellular base station sharing a bandwidth of the first cellular base station among the plurality of customer devices; and dynamically adjusting a data rate between the firstcellular base station and at least one of the plurality of customer devices, based on a variation in an amount of packet-switched data traffic, wherein the transmitting includes transmitting at least a portion of the packet-switched data to the at leastone of the plurality of customer devices through a wireless transceiver within the customer premises, which is coupled to the at least one of the plurality of customer devices via a local area network.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the transmitting includes employing a point-to-multipoint mode of transmission.

Description:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of switched telephony, and in particular, to wireless digital subscriber services, such as asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) services, that provide fixed broadband data access to remotelocations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As electronic communication by businesses and private individuals has increased, the demand on network service providers for high speed, i.e., broadband, data transmission has steadily grown. Originally, service providers attempted to meet suchdemand with narrow band analog modems over traditional circuit-switched communication networks. However, these networks unnecessarily consumed resources because they set aside direct lines for data transmission even when no voice or data was beingtransmitted. Thus, to utilize network resources more efficiently than the circuit-switched communication networks, service providers are increasingly turning to packet-switched communication and broadband data services.

Packet-switched communication utilizes network capacity only when transferring voice or data. Data is sliced into small packets of information that are transmitted when a circuit is available. Circuits are not dedicated to certain userapplications, as a phone service would be in a circuit-switched network. Instead, circuits remain open and available to all on-line users whenever they have data packets to transmit. This allocation strategy keeps lines open and saves network resourcesuntil they are actually needed for communication.

To accomplish this packet-switched broadband data communication, traditional network service providers typically use one of the following deployment options: (1) ADSL service using wired landlines (wireline ADSL); (2) integrated fiber in theloop (IFITL); or (3) ISDN, X.25, and other similar deployment services. In the prior art, the network service providers that own these wired telephone lines prefer wireline ADSL to deliver packet-switched data communication in service areas highlyconcentrated with customers because existing wire lines can be used, making ADSL inexpensive relative to the customer revenue produced in concentrated areas. However, broadband data rates over wire line facilities are distance dependent and requiredigital carrier systems for support once the length of wire line facilities exceed three miles from the central office. In contrast, in less concentrated and remote areas (e.g., rural areas), the smaller number of potential customers typically does notoffer enough revenue to outweigh the costs to install and maintain the system. In addition, the longer deployment distances require more engineering efforts and capital investment in the improvement of line qualification to achieve expected transmissionefficiency and quality. Therefore, potential customers in many locations typically do not have access to wireline ADSL service.

IFITL deployment improves the efficiency and quality of transmission over greater distances as compared to the wireline ADSL. However, the cost of installing optical fiber lines is very high, such that the limited numbers of distant potentialcustomers would rarely, if ever, justify the initial investment.

Thus, there remains a need for a supplemental service that extends existing packet-switch data networks to less populated and remote areas that currently have no access. The deployment technique should be economical to install and should notsuffer from reduced transmission quality over long distances. Further, the deployment method should enable network service providers to furnish remote customers with data access, while still realizing a profit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a fixed broadband wireless data access service that provides broadband packet-switched data transport for high speed data access. It will be described herein in terms of ADSL, but it could be applied in other contexts,such as wireless integrated service digital network over digital subscriber line (IDSL), wireless very high bit rate digital subscriber line (VDSL), or wireless symmetric or single-line digital subscriber line (SDSL). The following publications describethe broadband data communications to which this invention can be applied and are hereby incorporated by reference: (1) Goralski, Walter, SONET: A Guide to Synchronous Optical Networks, McGraw-Hill Companies, May 1997; (2) Stallings, William, ISDN andBroadband ISDN with Frame Relay and ATM, 4.sup.th Edition, Prentice Hall, Inc., October 1998; and (3) Sexton, Mike, and Reid, Andy, Broadband Networking: ATM, SDH, and SONET, Aitech House, January 1997. Additionally, the present invention will bedescribed herein in terms of an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network protocol, but should be understood to apply to other packet-switched data protocols, such as Internet Protocol (IP) over the air.

To support multiuser service sessions by wireless transmission, the present invention employs a data protocol of shared access bandwidth with adaptive asymmetric data rates. The strategy of sharing bandwidth by time allows several customers tosimultaneously interface with a wireless transmitter/receiver connected to the ATM backbone. Additionally, adaptive asymmetric data rate protocols optimize the communication between the multiple customers and the wireless transmitter/receiver. Theasymmetric data rate protocol tailors the data streams between the customer and wireless transmitter/receiver to accommodate changes in the amount of data that must be transmitted. Communication travels back and forth between the customer equipment andthe wireless transmitter/receiver such that one side transmits data and then listens for transmissions by the other side. As a result, the wireless data protocol of the present invention fully integrates the wireless multiuser high speed data accessservice with the wireline regional broadband network and the connected data service providers.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention builds upon the ATM switch of an existing regional broadband network. Base stations located nearest to the ATM switch are connected through wireline or wireless backhaul links to the ATM switch (FIG. 1shows wireline backhaul links, but wireless backhaul links could also be used). A base station includes "trans/ceiver radio", "RF channel combiner", and/or any kind of filters. Backhaul links are the transmission facilities, like transport trunkscarrying concentrated user data and network signaling, that support the duplex communications between customer ends and a central location such as a switch or service provider's network. Each base station, consisting of wireless transmission equipment,is centrally located in a network cell to provide shared high speed wireless access to each customer covered by the same transmitter/receiver antenna at the cell hub. The customers within the cells each have wireless customer equipment for communicatingwith the base station equipment. The base stations are connected to the nearest ATM switch through backhaul links that can be radio-frequency (RF) backhaul links, land line backhaul links, or a combination of the two. Cells are linked together onbackhaul facilities to the ATM switch. The layers of linked cells produce a network of integrated broadband data service that uses wireless technology to deliver high speed data access to previously unreachable areas.

Also connected to the ATM switch is a network management system (NMS) that provides a network view of all its managed elements. The NMS controls and monitors the end-to-end operations of the wireless ADSL network, such operations includingnetwork creation, flow-through provisioning, fault and performance management, capacity and traffic management, accounting management, and security management.

To provide uninterrupted service, the downstream bandwidth from the network to the customer or the upstream bandwidth from the customer to the network can be engineered in various symmetric and asymmetric configurations. In the preferredembodiment, the particular data traffic management configuration is tailored to meet the needs of individual customers. The base stations communicate with customer radio equipment that links to an Ethernet or ATM interface on the customer's network,depending on the interface required by the customer's network model. The customer radios in each cell share the same down-link wireless data channel, and send user traffic data back to the base station. The mode of transmission from a base station tocustomer radios is point-to-multipoint, while the mode of transmission from an individual customer radio to a base station is point-to-point.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide economic high speed data access to customers in locations where wireline ADSL and IFITL service is not available.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a wide range of packet-switched data services to multiple consumers using shared wireless packet-switched data connections.

These and other objects of the present invention are described in greater detail in the detailed description of the invention, the appended drawings, and the attached claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the wireless ADSL network.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the service and network management systems of the wireless ADSL network.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the wireless ADSL data network architecture.

FIG. 4a is a schematic diagram of a customer premise network architecture for a customer with a single personal computer.

FIG. 4b is a schematic diagram of a local area network (LAN) architecture in a customer premise.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention comprises four primary components: a regional broadband network 100, a network management system 102, cell hub equipment 104, and customer equipment 106. Regional broadband network 100 is an existingpacket-switched communications network that interfaces with data service providers, e.g., an internet service provider server 120 or a corporate intranet server 122. Through an ATM switch 108, regional broadband network 100 connects to NMS 102. NMS 102monitors and controls all network communications. Also through ATM switch 108, regional broadband network 100 connects to cell hub equipment 104 through either wired landlines or wireless links. Cell hub equipment 104 is distributed throughout aservice region in a grid pattern, in which each set of cell hub equipment services a cell site coverage area 110. Cell hub equipment 104 at each cell site location consists of one or more base stations that communicate directly with individual customerequipment 106 located within the cell site coverage area 110. Both cell hub equipment 104 and customer equipment 106 comprise radio-frequency transmitters and receivers. Customer equipment 106 also includes links to local area networks and dataterminals, such as personal computers.

Communication through the wireless ADSL network originates at the regional broadband network 100 and traverses the following path: from regional broadband network 100 to ATM switch 108, from ATM switch 108 to cell hub equipment 104, and fromcell hub equipment 104 to customer equipment 106. Within customer equipment 106, communication terminates at a personal computer inside the customer premises (and, in the case of multiple users within one customer premises, flows through a local areanetwork before terminating at the individual computers). Data flows from end to end in both directions along this communication path. Additionally, although the described path includes only one layer of cell sites, it would be apparent to one skilledin the art that multiple layers of cell hub equipment may exist by which cell sites can be linked such that the data from a distant cell site may travel from cell hub equipment to cell hub equipment before reaching ATM switch 108 and regional broadbandnetwork 100. An example of this multiple layer communication is shown schematically in FIG. 1.

To properly integrate the wireless data transfer with the existing wireline ADSL network, the present invention incorporates a data protocol that splits bandwidth among individual customer equipment 106 in a cell and varies the data ratesbetween customer equipment 106 and cell hub equipment 104. To provide simultaneous access to several users, the bandwidth is divided such that one side transmits and listens for transmission from the other side. The bandwidth sharing is accomplished byone of several technologies used to distinguish multiple accesses over a finite frequency spectrum, e.g., Time Division Multiplex, Time Division Multiple Access, Frequency Division Multiple Access, or Code Division Multiple Access.

The transmitted data rate is asymmetric and adaptive such that the ratio of the upstream and downstream data rate is dynamically updated. Unlike wireline ADSL, the wireless ADSL adjusts data rates to accommodate varying amounts of traffic dataon demand. Software provisioned on cell hub equipment 104 automatically controls data traffic between cell hub equipment 104 and customer equipment 106, selecting data rates suitable for the traffic demand and the capacity of the cell hub equipment 104. Controlling the data rate improves the capacity utilization between the wireless portion and existing wireline portion of the present invention.

The data protocol facilitates shared packet-switched communication over the air. The typical number of customer equipment 106 serviced by a single station of cell hub equipment 104 depends on the radio coverage, number of sectored radios, andthe bandwidth capacity of each sectored radio for the transmitter/receiver at the single station of cell hub equipment 104. For radio coverage, the higher the antenna is positioned with the higher the power supplied by cell hub equipment 104 and thehigher the density of customer equipment 106, the larger the possible number of connected customer equipment 106. For bandwidth capacity, the total number of customers within radio coverage depends on the minimum data bandwidth guaranteed to eachcustomer, e.g., if 20 Mbps have been allocated for a cell site with 20 customers, a service provider can guarantee 1 Mbps to each customer (the service provider could also increase the number of customers by factoring in the minimum number of nonusers atany given time and adding that number to the total number of serviceable customers).

System Components

Turning to the individual components of the wireless ADSL networks, the following sections describe the specific structure of the network components:

Regional Broadband Network

Regional broadband network 100 consists of high-bit-rate backhaul transport facilities and an existing ATM data network. These two elements interface cell sites to individual networks of network service providers. The high-bit-rate backhaulfacilities connect the wireless ADSL base stations to ATM switch 108 in the ATM data network. In the preferred embodiment, the backhaul facilities are either DS-3 or OC-3 lines and are traffic engineered to implement service level agreements to meet theneeds of the customers. The service level agreements describe selected parameter sets, which form different classes of services. For example, reserved data bandwidth is one of the key parameters in the agreements. The term "traffic engineering" refersto the method of dimensioning telecommunications equipment to provide service to customers at a defined quality of service.

As part of regional broadband network 100, the existing ATM data network is an interconnection broadband packet data network. An interconnection broadband packet-data network is a set of provisioned high speed data transmission facilitiesbetween networks or systems. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the ATM data network comprises Carrier Class ATM switches that deliver broadband services to both residential and small business customers.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, NMS 102 uses a Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) layered architecture to invoke Operation Support Systems, i.e., methods and procedures that directly support the daily operation ofthe network infrastructure. The following publication describes the TMN architecture and is hereby incorporated by reference: ITU-T (International Telecommunications Union-Telecommunications) Recommendation M.3010, "Principles for a TelecommunicationsManagement Network," October 1992. As shown in FIG. 2, NMS 102 operates as part of a service management system 200 that facilitates the provisioning and administration of service data. NMS 102 oversees all element management systems (EMSs) 202. TheEMSs 202 manage all related network elements 204 and interact with NMS 102 through a negotiated interface. In the preferred embodiment, the negotiated interface is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) based interface. The interface isproposed in wireless ADSL, and is the same interface that is implemented in the conventional wireline ADSL. A preferable network layout of Access EMS 206 and ATM EMS 208 is shown in FIG. 2.

In the preferred embodiment, an individual EMS provides several high level functions within NMS 102. First, the EMS furnishes to NMS 102 all related information required for NMS 102 to accomplish the end-to-end operations described above. Second, the EMS is configured to receive and terminate NMS messages, i.e., the NMS/EMS interface must not be a "pass-through" interface. Thus, in response to NMS messages targeted and terminated at the EMS, the EMS takes appropriate action and reportsback to NMS 102. The EMS manages detailed information from each Network Element within its domain and sends only appropriate information to NMS 102 as a part of the negotiated interface. Further, the EMS manages its respective Network Elements on asubnetwork basis (as defined in the context of the M4 Model in the ATM Forum), i.e., the EMS has the ability to manage a subgroup of network elements as if the network elements were one network element.

The individual elements of network elements 204 are defined as follows. Access radio is the radio at the based station, which is a radio frequency transmitter/receiver that communicates with consumer radios. In general, access radios aresectored radios (an Omni access radio is a special case). Access radios give customer access to the broadband network data pipe (trunk). In the reverse direction, the access concentrator distributes the data traffic among proper access radios thatrelay the data to consumer ends.

A third high level function of the EMS is the support of transmission of the auto-discovered network element information from the EMS domain to NMS 102, e.g., new cards in the base station equipment. The auto-discovered (AD) functionautomatically detects any element under the control of the EMS that is newly configured and/or newly out of service, reports the existence of the new element, and updates its database to monitor and control the new equipment and configuration.

As a final high level function, the EMS provides a graphical user interface at the EMS level to manage the installation of network elements. The graphical user interface is preferably a web graphical user interface.

Cell Hub Equipment

Cell hub equipment 104 is located at one base station, which is connected to an omni-directional antenna or a set of sectored antenna(s) centrally located in a cell site. The antenna(s) is/are positioned on top of a pole, tree, tower, or othertall structure of height ranging from 25-150 feet, depending on whether microcells or macrocells are deployed. However, for access by mobile customers, macrocells should be considered. Preferably, the service area of each cell covers 1/3 to 3 miles inradius.

The base station antennas in each cell communicate with customer units by wireless transmission. Preferably, transmission power is high enough to provide adequate service coverage for all customers in the cell, within compliance with FCCregulations. Further, the transmission is digital, using programmable multilevel radio-frequency (RF) modulation schemes. Because of the asymmetric nature of ADSL traffic, the RF channel duplex method is preferably time division duplex; however,frequency division duplex is an acceptable alternative. Also, because of the asymmetric nature of ADSL traffic, the channel access method is preferably time division multiple access; however, code division multiple access is also possible.

Cell hub equipment 104 also includes connection management equipment and packet-switching, equipment. The connection management equipment manages both the base stations and the backhaul connections and is responsible for: (1) customer equipmentauthentication (determining if customer is an approved subscriber); (2) configuration and control of customer equipment, base station, and backhaul communication; and (3) remote ATM signaling support. The packet-switching equipment aggregates trafficfrom individual base station antennas to the high speed data backhaul facility and distributes the traffic in the reverse direction.

Customer Equipment

To complete the delivery of high speed data access to the customer, customer equipment 106 is installed at businesses or residences to communicate with the wireless cell hub equipment 104. As the final part of the communication path, customerequipment 106 comprises an outside wireless transmitter/receiver radio, wire cabling from the wireless transmitter/receiver radio to inside the customer premises, a network interface card connected to the cabling, and a personal computer connected to thenetwork interface card. (If there are multiple computers within a single customer premises, the cabling connects to a local area network and each computer has a separate network interface card). The wireless transmitter/receiver radio is preferablyinstalled at a fixed location on the roof or side of a customer's premises at a height sufficient for line-of-sight transmission to cell hub equipment 104. The cabling joins the wireless transmitter/receiver radio to the local area network or individualpersonal computer within the customer's premises by an appropriate connection, e.g., 10Base-T, 100Base-T, or ATM25. At each personal computer, a network interface card, e.g., an Ethernet or ATM network interface card, is installed. The networkinterface card attaches to either a local area network communications device (e.g., a hub) or directly to the wireless transmitter/receiver radio.

The wireless connection and transport from customer equipment 106 to cell hub equipment 104 employs ATM packet-switching technology and is shared by multiple users covered by the same wireless transmitter/receiver radio installed at base stationof cell hub equipment 104. For a local area network that supports multiple personal computers, multi-user traffic from the local access network shares the customer equipment's total access capacity. Within the coverage of a single base station,multi-user traffic data from many customers' equipment share the total bandwidth of a RF channel. The RF transmission from customer equipment 106 supports communications with the base stations of cell hub equipment 104. The total radio bandwidth of theRF channel is managed by connection management equipment in cell hub equipment 104.

Communication Protocol

The system components described above form a wireless ADSL data network architecture as shown in FIG. 3 that provides a high speed wireless data interface for delivering differentiated broadband data services to customers via a local areanetwork infrastructure. The wireless ADSL system uses the RF spectrum for wireless transmission, and in the preferred embodiment, uses the most easily accessible spectrum bands, e.g., unlicensed bands such as the Industrial, Scientific, and Medicalbands and the National Information Infrastructure band. Alternatively, the wireless ADSL network could use licensed bands such as the Wireless Communications Services band and the Multi-channel Multipoint Distribution Service band.

The communication protocol used in the access network and regional broadband network portions of the wireless ADSL data service architecture is shown in FIG. 3. In a preferred embodiment, Point-to-Multipoint Protocol (PPP)/ATM protocol is usedas the transport protocol for data services across the U interface into the customer premises, and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)/ATM protocol is used as the transport protocol for data services from the customer premises to the access concentrator 300. These transport protocols preserve the network interfaces and functions seen by customers when accessing remote applications and Radius services. Radius services are remote authentication dial-in user services that include authentication of users andaccounting for billing purposes. The following publication describes Radius services and is hereby incorporated by reference: IETF Draft on Layer Two Tunneling Protocol "L2TP", October 1998. Thus, a user perceives that he or she is directly linked to anetwork service provider, although in reality the user is sharing packet-switched data access over a distributed network.

Within regional broadband network 100, but before ATM switch 108, an access concentrator 300 aggregates all of the regional customer data traffic into one "tunnel" and aggregates the Layer 2 Access Concentrator (LAC) over one Permanent VirtualCircuit (PVC). The regional customer data traffic originates from multiple sets of customer equipment 106 and flows through cell hub equipment (represented in FIG. 3 as access radio 302) to access concentrator 300. After access concentrator 300, theaggregated data is then transported through the ATM switch 108 to the network service provider network 304. Although in FIG. 3 PPP/L2TP/ATM is shown as the transport protocol at G, a different protocol may be used, depending on the needs of the networkservice provider equipment and business interface. It is important to note that the access concentrator 300 at V aggregates services from many different access technologies into one or more physical and/or logical interfaces. Thus, for example,wireline ADSL, dial-up, and T-1 could all be aggregated into the same interface at the access concentrator 300. However, the preferred embodiment of the protocol stack for current and future access technologies is PPP/ATM. PPP/ATM is preferred becauseof its current availability and because its use preserves the network interfaces and functions seen by the user. Using PPP protocol hides from the user the fact that a distributed network is being used to connect to the service provider. With the PPPprotocol, the user perceives a single network connection rather than a collection of independent physical links.

As shown in FIG. 4a, at the customer premises, the communication protocol maps point-to-point sessions from a customer's personal computer 410 to the wireless transmitter/receiver radio 414. The preferred embodiment of the present inventionuses PPP/ATM protocol within the customer network to conform to typical industry practice. For customers with single personal computers, an ATM25 network interface card 412 would be used to connect to wireless transmitter/receiver radio 414. Forcustomers with multiple devices within the customer network, a small ATM switch/router is inserted between personal computer 410 and wireless transmitter/receiver radio 414.

In the case of traditional Ethernet local area networks, alternative networking technology is employed to map point-to-point sessions from a customer's personal computer to the wireless transmitter/receiver radio. An example of this alternativearchitecture is shown in FIG. 4b. The architecture uses point-to-point protocol over the Ethernet in a communication from a local area network 420. In each personal computer, one Ethernet card is installed. The data traffic from an individual personalcomputer through its Ethernet network interface card 422 is aggregated at the Ethernet network interface card 422 and forwarded to a wireless transmitter/receiver radio 424.

The communication protocols described above enable the present invention to emulate wireline ADSL as perceived by the customer. Specifically, the communication protocols create several aspects of network transparency, as a result of which thecustomer perceives that she has a direct connection with the network service provider, rather than a shared packet-switched connection. The individual aspects of this network transparency are as follows: 1) Access Transparency: The wireless ADSL networkprotocol supports multiple, independent, and simultaneous point-to-point sessions between customer personal computers on customer premises' local area networks and network service providers. Further, the network's point-to-point transport is notimpaired among multiple layer-3 protocols. 2) Class-of-Service Transparency: The data service architecture supports independent classes of service for each user session, which enables local area network users at customer premises to subscribe to adifferentiated grade of service from service providers. Further, the data service architecture supports a mechanism of Quality of Service mapping between point-to-point session and ATM virtual channels. 3) Address Transparency: Specifically, the dataservice architecture enables customer premise local area network users to access service providers by using either a registered or private network address by t-additional or virtual dial-up. 4) Scaling Transparency: Using the communication protocol, thedata service architecture does not significantly limit the number of customer lines in the access network nor limit the number of concurrent point-to-point sessions established to any one network service provider. 5) Authentication, Authorization, andAccounting: Specifically, the data service architecture preserves the authentication, authorization, and accounting functions of each point-to-point session. 6) Incoming Calls: Data architecture does not preclude the support of incoming calls for eitherpoint-to-point sessions or ATM Switched Virtual Connections. Advantages

The present invention offers several advantages in extending ADSL service to remote locations. Because the deployment strategy builds upon an existing regional broadband network, it is not necessary to invest large sums of money in developing aregional broadband network. In addition, existing regional broadband networks may not be fully loaded, such that the addition of the wireless ADSL service fully utilizes network resources.

Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to run IP protocol at the customer premises while running ATM protocol over the air and over the backbone network. This allows the customers to use the IP local area network interfacecards that they already have, instead of having to purchase additional ATM interface cards.

The network architecture of the present invention will also support many different future vertical packet-switched data services, including wireless voice over internet protocol (VoIP), wireless voice telecommunications over ATM (VToA),packet-switched data return path for interactive TV or video, nomadic data access through wireless transmission, and broadband mobile data access.

Another advantage of the present invention is its ability to transmit over long distances without reduced transmission quality. In wireless ADSL, loop qualification is unnecessary and the absence of hard connections (e.g., bridge taps) keepstransmission quality high.

Finally, the network strategy of the present invention offers a significant advantage in its breadth of application. In particular, the network architecture and protocols are not limited to specific vendors, services, radio spectrums, networkprotocols, or wireless access technologies.

With regard to network protocols, the preferred embodiment describes an ATM implementation for purposes of illustration and should not be construed to be limited to the ATM network protocol. Rather, it should be noted that the implementation ofwireless ADSL is not network protocol specific and that the preferred embodiment is compatible with other wireless ADSL implementations based on packet-switched data protocol such as Internet Protocol (IP) over the air. The ATM network protocol waschosen to illustrate the preferred embodiment simply because of the current availability of existing ATM backbone networks and the high level of familiarity those skilled in the art hold for the current ATM networks.

With regard to wireless access technologies, the preferred embodiment describes a wireless ADSL service for the purpose of illustration and should not be construed to be limited to wireless ADSL. The disclosed architecture could also be appliedto wireless integrated service digital network over digital subscriber line (IDSL), to wireless very high bit rate digital subscriber line (VDSL), or to wireless symmetric or single-line digital subscriber line (SDSL).

The foregoing disclosure of embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations andmodifications of the embodiments described herein will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.